The Stroop Effect (Speaker Notes)
Slide 1
No speaker notes for this slide.
Slide 2
Have you ever used an application, or website, and had to
think carefully about what to click? Share in the chat if you
can think of an example when you had to think carefully
about what to click.
Wait until a couple of suitable comments have been made in
the chat and comment appropriately on them. As a prompt
about thinking carefully, you might ask if they've had a
dialogue box that says “yes”, “no” and “cancel”, and they've
had to think hard about whether they want “no” or “cancel”;
or if they've been in a situation where they were worried
pressing the wrong button will cause major problems. For
thinking about whether software designers use psychology,
they might think about whether some apps/software seems
very easy to use, and others are very confusing. Is this by
accident, or has some thought gone into them?
We are going to go through the next few slides quickly. As
each one comes up, say the colour you see and not the
word. You will be kept on mute, so you can say it to
yourself. Here we go...
The Stroop Effect (Speaker Notes) - csunplugged.org Page 1 of 9
Slide 3
Was that difficult? Remember, you should have said the
colour of the word, green, and not the word itself, red.
Here's another one...
Keep your participants on mute. Show each of the following
slides for 1 or 2 seconds only.
Slide 4
No speaker notes for this slide.
Slide 5
No speaker notes for this slide.
Slide 6
No speaker notes for this slide.
The Stroop Effect (Speaker Notes) - csunplugged.org Page 2 of 9
Slide 7
No speaker notes for this slide.
Slide 8
From a scale of 1 - 5, with one being difficult and five
being easy, write in the chat how difficult or frustrating
you found it to say the colour of the word, rather than the
word itself.
Allow time for a few responses and comment appropriately,
e.g. “I see many people found it tricky.”
Slide 9
Now we've had the warm up, let's try timing this activity. I
have two lists and we will time how long it takes to read
each of them.
These next two activities are the same as our practice
round, but with all the words on one page. Say the colour
the word is printed in, rather than the word. The slide will
look like this, which shows a timer. When you have read
all of the words out loud, look at the timer at the bottom
and note what time it is on when you finish. Are you
ready? Here's the list for you to read. Starting in 5, 4, 3, 2,
1...
Move to the next slide and say “Go!”.
The Stroop Effect (Speaker Notes) - csunplugged.org Page 3 of 9
Slide 10
Go!
Wait about 10 seconds while participants read the colours
to themselves.
Now type how long it took into the chat. It's not a test of
how clever you are - it's more a test of how silly the
exercise is!
Wait until a large majority at least have entered a time in
the chat.
From the chat it looks like you've all had a go. The range
of times seems to be [estimate the time range], so let's
make the average time for this to be [say a time that
would be close to the average; it will typically be around
10 to 14 seconds, and your estimate doesn't have to be
very accurate].
Record the average time you have stated.
Slide 11
We'll repeat the activity on the next slide, but this time
the words will be “congruent” with the colours - the
colour will be the same as the word. Let's see how long
this one takes! 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...
Move to the next slide, and say “Go!”.
The Stroop Effect (Speaker Notes) - csunplugged.org Page 4 of 9
Slide 12
Go!
Wait about 8 seconds while participants read the colours to
themselves.
Now type your new time into the chat.
Wait again until the majority of participants have added a
time to the chat.
This time the range of times seems to be [estimate the
time range], so let's make the average time for this to be
[say a time that would be the average; it would typically
be around 5 to 7 seconds for the easier version].
Record the average time you have stated.
The Stroop Effect (Speaker Notes) - csunplugged.org Page 5 of 9
Slide 13
Let's compare the times; what do you notice? What would
be the ratio? [Typically the congruent list is 2 to 3 times
faster to read.]
Share in the chat if you've felt like this using a digital
system, where the interface (what it has displayed to you)
is confusing to use.
Has a bad interface ever slowed you down or made you
feel frustrated or even anxious?
Watch participants for nodding or responses in chat.
I can see several people nodding and we've had a couple
of responses in the chat. This activity is called the 'Stroop
effect' and is a famous experiment from psychology
named after John Ridley Stroop. The Stroop test measures
the amount of time it takes to say the name of the printed
colours in an incongruent (incompatible, non-matching)
list and compares this time to saying the name of the
print colour in a congruent (agreeing, matching) list.
Stroop found that people were often 2 or 3 times slower
trying to read incongruent information.
Let's see it how this applies to Human Computer
Interaction.
The Stroop Effect (Speaker Notes) - csunplugged.org Page 6 of 9
Slide 14
This screen is from an airline booking system; once you
have entered all the details, it asks you to click on one of
these options. Which option would you click on? Share
your ideas in the chat.
What for a couple of responses and respond appropriately.
If people are in a hurry, they will naturally press the green
button to continue (green means “go”, orange means
“warning”), but that will wipe all the information they
have entered.
In this example a lot of people pressed the wrong button
and lost all their work. You could say that they didn't read
it properly, but usually people are under pressure when
they are using systems, and don't have time to carefully
consider every step. If you expect them to do that, then
it's like the Stroop effect. A good interface shouldn't make
people have to think hard.
Slide 15
Here's another one. Suppose you didn't really want to
quit this program. Which button should you press to
avoid losing your work? Are you sure?
What for a few answers and respond appropriately.
This isn't a drastic problem, but you do have to think
carefully, and the consequences of a mistake are severe.
Interfaces should be worded in a way that the user can
confidently navigate them without having to stop and
think hard all the time.
The Stroop Effect (Speaker Notes) - csunplugged.org Page 7 of 9
Slide 16
This is our last example. Why is this an invalid date
format? What would you need to type to make it correct?
Share your ideas in the chat.
Wait for some responses and respond appropriately.
Some of you have spotted it, the month is in capital
letters (“MAR”) but it should be written as “Mar”. The
format shows “MMM” which conflicts with the “Mar”
example.
These are examples of just one type of problem in
interfaces: confusing people with potentially
contradictory messaging, even though they can work out
what to do if they think about it. It only slows people
down a little, but it can make them feel like you did when
doing the Stroop experiment - frustrated and anxious -
when they are trying to get their work done. Good
interface designers anticipate and avoid these sorts of
problems.
Slide 17
Software designers write programs for people, not for
computers. We've shown in this session how important it
is for them to consider and understand how their end
users (people) will interact with the programs they create.
This kind of problem is just one of many ways that bad
interfaces can make life difficult for computer users.
There are many other ideas from psychology that are
important in interface design, such as the length of
delays in software before people notice (spoiler: usually
anything longer than one tenth of a second is noticed),
how inconsistent designs can be confusing, and many
more. A lot of these things are fun when they are a game
like the one we played, but can be very frustrating when
they prevent someone from getting their job done.
The Stroop Effect (Speaker Notes) - csunplugged.org Page 8 of 9
Slide 18
Here are some supporting resources for you. I'll paste
these links in the chat.
Online Course (MOOC) - Teaching Computational Thinking
(Section 9)
https://www.edx.org/course/teaching-computational-
thinking
Computer Science Field Guide - Human Computer
Interaction
https://www.csfieldguide.org.nz/en/chapters/human-
computer-interaction/
The Stroop Effect (Speaker Notes) - csunplugged.org Page 9 of 9
